LOUISVILLE – City leaders took a critical step early Wednesday toward saving a century-old, weather-beaten grain elevator that would otherwise face near-certain destruction from the wrecking ball.

The City Council decided by a single vote to authorize the expenditure of nearly $1 million to purchase the long-vacant building from its current owners. It rejected, also by a single vote, putting the decision about spending public funds on the building to a vote of the people in November.

“I frankly think it's time for us to lead and to preserve the building,” Mayor Bob Muckle said.

He was supported by three colleagues on the council who said that the residents of Louisville had elected them to make tough decision on the complex issues.

Mayor Pro Tem Hank Dalton argued that the question over the grain elevator's future had become so contentious and divisive that it belonged on the ballot.

The council must still pass a second reading of the ordinance at its next meeting Sept. 4 for it to take effect.

The city will likely end up spending another $700,000 to shore up the aging structure, which was built around 1903 by Irish immigrant and miller John Mullen.

That prompted at least one resident to lambaste the city for spending so much on a building whose future value is unknown and has no guarantee of finding a willing buyer, even after basic restoration work is completed. “I think the council has a fiduciary responsibility,” Beverlee White said.

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“I think this is very high risk and overpriced and I'm not in favor of it.”

But most of the people who addressed the council were firmly in favor of saving the grain elevator and implored their elected leaders to do so. They pointed out that the money would come from Louisville's taxpayer-supported historic preservation fund, which was meant for exactly this kind of project.

The owners of the wooden elevator, which features rare stacked plank construction, have said they intend to raze the building if the city can't figure out a way to buy it from them.

The prospect of the grain elevator's imminent destruction became a rallying cry for its backers.

“This thing is in real danger,” said Scott Brown, a preservationist who has helped save multiple historic buildings in Telluride and Ouray. “Whatever it is, is better than losing this property and letting it get demolished. Get control of this property – this thing will work out.”

Wednesday's post-midnight vote was the latest chapter in a roller-coaster couple of months for the grain elevator, which appeared to be on the road to preservation as recently as two weeks ago after the city agreed to team with Boulder-based Amterre Property Group to buy and refurbish the building.

That agreement fell apart last week after a group of residents began a petition drive against it. They claimed that the public-private partnership was ill-advised because it required that Louisville give Amterre $2.1 million, plus tax rebates, to undertake the task of restoring the structure.

Ashley Stolzmann, who was one of the Louisville residents behind the petition drive, said she feared that dedicating more than $2 million to the elevator would deprive other worthy historic preservation efforts in town of funding.

“It doesn't leave enough money for everyone to get their projects completed,” she said.

The historic preservation fund has a balance of $900,000 and is expected to take in about $400,000 from tax receipts this year.

Stolzmann and her allies says it would be better if the city purchased the grain elevator and the parcel on which it sits and then subdivide and sell off portions of the property to recoup some of its costs. Louisville, they say, could also use its power to obtain state historic preservation grants to offset the expense of saving the elevator.

Long-time resident Michael Menaker said he didn't envy the council's position. While the emotional appeal of saving the grain elevator was obvious, he said it would be a financially nettlesome challenge to wrestle with.

Menaker said simply stabilizing the building – rendering it a “cold, lifeless and empty husk” – wouldn't help make it palatable to a buyer. He said the city had to be ready to spend beyond its comfort zone with the hopes that the amorphous rewards of preserving one of Louisville's oldest buildings would bring benefits that can't be measured in dollars and cents.

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